I'm making hard sparkling apple cider using the Champagne method (re-fermenting on the bottle for carbonation). This year I will try the full method of also removing the yeast lees from the bottle afterwards, which I have previously just left there. Now I'm wondering why one would actually go through all the hassle of the classical "Remuage". instead of just placing the bottle upside down directly for some days after the fermentation has finished in the bottle, to let the …

So for fun I decided to try making wine from Dark Cherry Juice (Knudsen Pure Pressed Dark Cherry). I was surpised to fine the native SG of the juice was 1080. I was almost tempted to just ferment it without adding sugar, but well I like my wine's above 12% so I pitched a cup of sugar into the 1 gallon must. Anyway, after about 7 days the primary fermentation has mostly settled down and where the wine seemed devoid …

Making some kiwi wine (exciting!). When transferring from primary to secondary getting the fruit pulp was a bit of a mess and I inevitably stirred all the lees into the wine. Now, after only 1 day in the secondary there is lots of sediment in the carboy (more than 1cm). Should I worry about it at all? Rack it again of the gunk?

I'm learning there are "gross" lees or the first big batch of sediment and then there are "fine" lees or the subsequent smaller amounts of sediment. "Gross" lees can contribute to "gross" flavors, but "fine" lees can contribute to damn "fine" ones :). After I press, how long should I wait for the gross stuff to settle out? How do I know when to make the cut between what is good and what is bad for this red?

I want to re-suspend yeast and generally keep a brew uniformly mixed in a carboy without having to open it and expose it to oxygen every time. Is there a hobbist-priced magnetic stirrer that works for this kind of application? Right now, I'm thinking about the long-term aging process of a red wine. In a quick test I found that the dome of the carboy makes it a little hard for the stirrer. Most chemistry mixing flasks have flat bottoms …

I have a mead that I plan on bottle conditioning. With beer, due to the short turn-around time, you can usually just rack onto some priming sugar and bottle, and the remaining yeast will eat the sugar. Mead, cider, and wine, however, have longer aging times, which gives the yeast more time to drop out and/or hibernate. Now, I know you can add a little yeast specifically meant for bottle conditioning (probably EC-1118, in my case), however, how long can …

I just created my first 5 gallon batch of white wine, and it turned out pretty good. However about a month ago I reracked it with sparkolloid powder allowing the lees to settle at the bottom, but have since been having trouble separating the lees from the liquid. After waiting for the wine to clear I poured it out for bottling, but a ton of lees got mixed in with the wine. I got rid of a lot of the …

What is the difference between Trub and Lees? I've only heard about lees in regards to wine, i.e. the leftovers in the bottle. Note, Wikipedia says Lees is not only leftover grape bits, but also dead yeast. OTH, Trub is the leftovers after a homebrew boil. I've also heard the settled yeast after bottle conditioning called trub. Could the bottle conditioning 'trub' also be called 'lees'? Is there a technical difference? Is there an etymological difference? (I realize that last …